NEW YORK CITY-W. P. Carey Inc. on Tuesday credited its merger with CPA:15 this past September with a sizable year-over-year increase in adjusted funds from operations. AFFO for the first quarter of 2013 was $72.3 million, or $1.03 per diluted share, compared to $40.1 million, or $0.99 per diluted share for the first three months 2012.
“We are very pleased with our first-quarter results, which continue to demonstrate the benefits of our merger with CPA:15 and conversion to a REIT,” Trevor Bond, president and CEO of W. P. Carey, says in a statement. “The significant increase in our real estate under ownership and resulting AFFO growth enabled us to raise our dividend by 24%, as compared with the previous quarter. As we have for four decades, we will continue to focus our activities on identifying net lease assets that support our strategy of generating stable cash flows for investors.” The company has raised dividends for 48 consecutive quarters.
Currently, the W. P. Carey-owned portfolio currently runs to 39 million square feet over 422 leased properties leased to about 124 corporate tenants. The average lease term of the portfolio is 8.8 years and the occupancy rate is approximately 98.8%.
The REIT also is advisor to to the CPA REITs and to Carey Watermark Investors; among them, the CPA REITs and CWI had aggregate real estate assets of $7.9 billion, cash of about $800 million and total assets of $8.6 billion as of March 31. Average occupancy rate for the 83.2 million square feet owned by the CPA REITs was approximately 98.5%. CWI invested in six lodging properties for a total of $125 million during Q1.
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